Cerebellar theta burst stimulation in stroke patients with ataxia

Bonnì, Sonia and Ponzo, Viviana and Caltagirone, Carlo and Koch, Giacomo (2014) Cerebellar theta burst stimulation in stroke patients with ataxia. Functional Neurology, 29 (1). pp. 41-45. ISSN 1971-3274

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Abstract

Evidence for effective improvement of the symptoms of cerebellar stroke is still limited. Here, we investigated the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) applied over the injured cerebellar hemisphere in six patients with posterior circulation stroke. We applied a two-week course of cerebellar intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS). Before and after the iTBS treatment, paired-pulse TMS methods were used to explore: i) the functional connectivity between the cerebellar hemisphere and the contralateral primary motor cortex (M1), by means of the cerebellar brain inhibition (CBI) protocol; and ii) the intracortical circuits in the contralateral M1, by means of the short intra-cortical inhibition (SICI) and intra-cortical facilitation (ICF) protocols. Patients were also evaluated using the Modified International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale (MICARS). Cerebellar iTBS induced a decrease in CBI and an increase in ICF at an interstimulus interval of 15 msec. These neurophysiological changes were paralleled by a clinical improvement, shown by the MICARS posture and gait subscale scores. Cerebellar iTBS could be a promising tool to promote recovery of cerebellar stroke patients.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: cerebellar stroke; theta burst stimulation; intracortical facilitation
Subjects: 600 Tecnologia - Scienze applicate > 610 Medicina e salute (Classificare qui la tecnologia dei servizi medici)
Depositing User: Marina Spanti
Date Deposited: 16 Dec 2015 16:52
Last Modified: 16 Dec 2015 16:52
URI: http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/id/eprint/11087

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